A Lesson Learned
by Taco-Baron
Summary: SakuXSasu NaruXHina. Yeah, this is really old, and I guess i just wanted to post it here cause i wanted to. Obviously I don't own ANY character mentioned. They all belong to Masashi Kishimoto.
1. Chapter 1

Sasuke heard his older brother's voice inside his head, he continuously heard the taunting voice, teasing him maliciously "You'll never have enough hate to kill me" Sasuke imagined his brother; staring at his little brother, so pathetic, so weak. He had been unable to do anything about the slaughtering of his clan. Sasuke then felt that feeling gripping his heart. No, he had to keep it away or he would never be strong enough. He could never love; his life was one of vengeance, and one of pure hatred. Sasuke could never return Sakura's love, even though deep down, he loved her back with all his heart. He still dreamt of them together, he imagined them a beautiful couple. No! He had to keep those away, or he would never be able to hate.

"So, Naruto, are you done training?" Sasuke asked. He would never end before that little thing barely capable to be called a ninja.

"No! I'm not done until every muscle in my body is aching" Naruto said. And with that he began his exercises all over again. This was his 20th time. And the surrounding landscape showed it. Every tree in the immediate vicinity had been obliterated by Narrator's rasengan.

"Hmm!" and Sasuke was back to his training. He just had to be better than Naruto. Sasuke would never allow Naruto to be equal to him. So he continued to his 20th exercise routine. He did this even every strand of his being ached, every bit of him screamed in pain. Every motion caused him to feel the pain of thousands of needles. Sasuke continued his routine, and the pain continued to get worse. there was no way that Sasuke could continue, his body was tattered, and this was all just training, as he began to attack a tree near him, he collapsed.

Pure darkness, what was this place. Where was he? Sasuke was floating in an abyss of pure nothingness. Wait! There was a light. Sasuke tried to move towards it, nothing he could do would move him. But he was lucky, the light began to move towards him, as it crept closer its eerie ghostly light was cast upon his pale features. There was a little child running. He was so small, he was running, and crying. Why was he sad, why did he cry, Sasuke watched, and suddenly let out a cry of anguish as he realized it was him. The night of the massacre. He knew what would happen next. It always happened. He could not move as he watched again, and again as his brother, the one he loved, kill his parents. Why, why, why hadn't he killed me as well? Why leave me in a pit of hellish existence?

Sasuke knew, or at least this was what he thought. He was left to seek revenge, left to be a child to live a life of pure hate, to hate all, and to kill Itachi. This was what Sasuke had told himself, every night. He could never love Sakura, or befriend Naruto. They would just pull him down. Only the power of hate would bring him the needed power to kill Itachi.

Then there was pure light, a bright light, brighter than any he had ever seen. "Hey, Sasuke are you all right?" Naruto asked. What an idiot, Sasuke thought.

"Leave me alone, I'm fine." Sasuke replied. "I need to continue my training to become stronger" he said trying to rise. He had barely managed to kneel when he collapsed.

"Sasuke!" Naruto ran over to his friend. "You need to stop, there's no way you can continue" he said. Naruto knew he may have been stupid, but he wasn't as stupid as Sasuke. Still attempting to train when every muscle in his body would refuse.

"Naruto! I said leave me alone!" Sasuke said as loud as possible. Unfortunately, Sasuke was unable to speak loud because of his excessive training.

"No! I won't! Sasuke you're done for now. You need to rest. Come on, I'll help" Naruto said. He began to lift Sasuke up but was briskly swatted away by the person he was trying to help.

"No! Naruto I don't need help!" Sasuke whispered this time. Needless to say the swat was even less powerful than being attacked by a cold, wet noodle. Sasuke was finished for now. He knew this, but did not care, he tried to get up, but when kneeling, he once again collapsed.

This time Naruto just picked Sasuke up and slung him onto his back. Naruto then began the trek to Sasuke's house.

a silence enveloped the two genin, each thinking of how to break the silence. Naruto wanted to know why Sasuke kept training, but was beat by Sasuke.

"Naruto, why do you protect the people in this village? Why are you kind to me, even though I act as though I hate you?" he asked. The answer to this Sasuke could never think up, Sasuke was just not like Naruto at all.

"Huh, well...I dunno, it's the hokage's job to protect the village right?" Naruto replied "Well I plan to be hokage some day, and no one can stop me" he said, the fire of battle in his eyes, as he thought of getting the whole respect of the village, and more importantly, the respect of his beloved Sakura.

"That still doesn't answer my question" Sasuke was tired, but he had to know.

"It doesn't.....but....I....thought....ummm..." Naruto couldn't understand how it didn't answer the question

"Well, you answered the first one, but it doesn't answer the second one, I want to know why you're kind to me." Sasuke could barely finish the sentence before he fell asleep, and entered another of his dreams about Sakura.

Sasuke was sleeping pleasantly, thinking about him and Sakura. Her beautiful pink hair, her luscious skin, how she enters a room and it somehow brightens, as if by her perfect smile. And Sasuke just kept on thinking of how perfect Sakura was that he was quite startled when he was awaken by Naruto.

"Well the answer is..." Naruto began

" w-w-what?" Sasuke mumbles still half asleep, completely confused at what Naruto has to say.

"Your question you asked before you went to sleep" Naruto said. Sasuke was definitely a strange person.

"Oh, yeah, the answer is...." Sasuke asked. For some reason he just had to know the answer that was about to come out of Naruto's mouth, but he just couldn't say why.

"It's because I...I....I envy you Sasuke, all the girls have always fawned over you" Naruto said. "They have always wanted to be with 'Uchiha', it's not like you're the only orphan in the whole town. I'm mainly jealous because Sakura loves you, and I know no matter what she will never love me. I mean if you chose someone else she would give up, but you never choose, and so she thinks she will be the one that you will proclaim your love for" Naruto replied, tears began to form on the tips of his eyes "and with you playing that game, I'm left trying to be as accepting as possible, but I'm in the same situation as Sakura, I try to win her affection, but she just loves you....please if you love her take her, if not, then, then...." and with that he was gone.

"Naruto....thank you" Sasuke now realized that he could hate his brother, but rejecting someone's love was just causing pain in his only true friend's heart, and Sasuke, for some strange reason could not bear to cause this pain. This pain of the heart.

Sasuke fall asleep, and dreamed, he dreamed of his love. And then he promised as he dreamed that he would take Sakura, his true love, and how he would tell her his love, and how he felt. His brother's torture of a life filled with hate was over.


	2. Chapter 2

Today was the day. He had waited years for this. Ever since he was a little boy, the pink haired girl was all that he longed for. That was until the massacre, until his brother killed every member of his family except him. After that, the little boy always tried to ignore her, but last night...last night he finally understood that his ignoring her had caused his only true friend pain. Such pain, that only one thing could cure it. he had to tell Sakura how he felt.

Sasuke got up, and slowly dressed for the day. What would he say? "Sakura, the truth is that I've loved you forever" no, that was way too long. He had to think of a way to say "I love you" without overdoing it, and without sounding cheesy. Then it hit him, of course that would definitely work. A few possible flaws, but nearly perfect.

"Finally..." that was all Sasuke said as he left his house in search of his beloved Sakura.

On the other side of town...

"Will Sasuke actually listen to me?" Naruto had asked himself this question hundreds of times. He wasn't able to sleep the previous night because he continuously thought over what had happened, what he had said. Why, oh why did he have to say that? If Sasuke really did love Sakura like he feared, then his chances with Sakura were very little if any at all. "I'll have to find someone else" Naruto said as tears began to form in his eyes.

"Okay then here we go" Sasuke said apprehensively as he approached Sakura.

"Sasuke!" she said. As usual her beautiful hair flowed in the gentle wind, framing her face in a swirl of pink. Her beautiful green eyes twinkled like a star in the midnight sky. And here her one love was, and he had no idea what to say.

"Ummm...hey Sakura" he said trying to smile. Sakura looked as if she was about to faint. Sasuke Uchiha had just smiled at her, the Sasuke Uchiha. She had to be the luckiest girl alive. "Sooo...how's it goin?" he asked. And once again that cute expression crossed her face as if she were about to faint.

"I've got to be dreaming" she mumbled to herself. "Umm, I'm good, how about you Sasuke" she asked, trying to stay as cool as possible under the circumstances.

"Oh, I'm doing good, but what I really wanted to talk about is..." Sasuke paused. Could he really do this? Was he about to proclaim his love to her? Oh no! He forgot what he was gonna say. This was bad. But when he looked at her hopeful face, with an indescribable expression on her face, he had to continue, he'd just improvise. "Ummm, what I wanted to talk about is you" he said. Well it was sort of the truth.

"Seriously? You wanna talk about me? I feel sooo special..." she said. And slowly a smile began to spread across her face. "Wait did I just say that out loud?!?" she asked. Oh no! He finally wants to talk to me and I ruin it she thought, I just had to say that, now he probably thinks I'm an idiot or something. "what I meant to say is that...umm, is that-"

"no, you don't need to explain yourself...." Sasuke began "it's me who should be explaining themselves..." he said. Great, this was sure to work; she'd love him even more than ever.

"What?" she had asked. She looked so cute and so pure when she had the look of confusion mixed with love written all over her face.

"it's just that ever since I met you... I-I-I've..." how could he stop at a point like this. He had to pull himself together.

"You've what, what Sasuke, what?!?!" she was nearly yelling with anticipation. "What about me?!?!?"

"Okay here it goes, ever since I met you Sakura, I've l-l-loved you" He said. The reaction was almost instantly, first Sakura stared for nearly half a second before fainting and then Sasuke fainted with shock of what he had said.

The two were found by none other than Jiraiya. Scenes raced through his mind at what could have happened, but one thing was for certain. He had to have a scene like this in his upcoming novel. He then took the two to the hospital, just in case.


	3. Chapter 3

Naruto knew. He just somehow knew that Sakura was lost to Sasuke forever. He could survive, but who could he ever love. No one ever showed the least bit of kindness to him, not even Sakura. These thoughts swirled in the young genin's mind as he sat watching the village. Everyone had something to do, everyone was hustling and bustling. He knew what it was like to have somewhere to be, but not anymore. The "place to be" was usually following Sakura.

"Th-th-they all l-l-look sort of like ants, eh n-n-Naruto" a voice said somewhere behind him. He could tell by the soft, kind tone in its voice that it was none other than Hinata Hyuuga.

"Yeah, they do, don't they... i never realized that" he said. Truthfully he had noticed this long ago, but said this to keep a conversation going. "Hinata?" he asked.

"y-y-yes n-Naruto?" she asked.

"Why are you up here" he asked. When he said this, her cheeks turned a deep shade of crimson "Hinata! Are you okay?!?" he asked, and this caused her to turn an even deeper shade of crimson.

"Umm...ummm...I n-n-needed s-s-some quiet time" she said, slowly the crimson drained from her face, and looked once again normal. "How about y-y-you n-Naruto?" she asked, maybe she could just keep him here long enough to tell him, to let him know her feelings.

"I....well...you see.....okay, I'm up here because I told Sasuke to tell Sakura he loved her...well I mean, if he really does love her, and....I just know...he...well..." Naruto couldn't explain to Hinata how he just knew that Sasuke really had loved Sakura, and that he had finally told her. He couldn't explain it, but he just knew.

"I understand what you're going through" Hinata said. "You love someone, and yet you know that no matter what you do, you just can't have them" she said. This was it; this was the perfect time to tell him. Right now, it was the most romantic place she could ever to tell Naruto. "Naruto, I have-"

"Hinata! You didn't stutter when you said my name!" Naruto said. He was surprised. This little girl always seemed to have trouble with words, but that last sentence. That last sentence she said those words as if she had dreamed to say them a million times.

"W-w-what!?!" Hinata asked slightly startled. He was so cute when he had a random outburst of energy. And yet she was the only person who could see that.

"Darn! We almost had you cured of your stuttering" Naruto said. He looked quite sad. First losing the love of your life, then when he had almost cured her, she was shocked right back into it. "Oh, Hinata, what were you gonna say?"

She had to say this. There was no other thing on her mind other than this blonde cutie. "Naruto, I have something to tell you" she said. She had to be as dramatic as possible; she had to make the scene as she would always remember it in her head.

"Yeah, Hinata?" he asked, curiosity filling his sky blue eyes.

"I…I l-l-l-love y-y-you" Hinata said. Her eyes were filling fast, and her vision became blurry.

"H-Hinata, what's wrong? Why are you crying" he asked. Girls, they were so confusing.

"I-I'm crying because I know no matter what I do, you will never love Me." she said. Hinata turned to run but was caught by Naruto.

"That's not true Hinata" and with that he pulled her towards him, and kissed her. At first Hinata was afraid, who was this. But then she knew that this was Naruto, and he loved her. And no one, not even Sakura could break this bond that they had made in the past few minutes.


	4. Chapter 4

"Thanks……fine here…..fainted, that's……yeah……okay" Sasuke heard these voices. Who could they be? What were they talking about? And why did his head hurt? Then he remembered. Sakura knew how he felt, how he had secretly loved her. And he also remembered how he embarrassingly fainted in shock as to what he had said. Great! Now Sakura probably thinks I'm weak, he thought to himself. Sasuke decided he had to find Sakura and explain what really happened.

"Oh, look who's finally awake" said some strange voice. Sasuke's attention was directed to its owner in an instant. It was an old man with long spiky-ish hair. On his back he carried a scroll. Sasuke looked at this man with complete and utter confusion. Who could this strangely attired person be? He then remembered seeing Naruto train with him in the not so distant past. Yet he could still not remember his name.

"Ummm, who are you?" Sasuke asked in a monotonous voice to make it know that he didn't really care.

"Who am I?" the old man asked. Sasuke could tell that the man obviously thought very highly of himself. "You have got to be kidding," he said in a slightly disappointed tone. "You don't know who I am, but you know who Tsunade is, and Orochimaru don't you? He asked as his temper began to rise.

"Yeah, both of them are of the three legendary sannin" Sasuke responded flatly. "But how does that have anything to do with my question?" Sasuke asked starting to get quite annoyed.

"THREE!!! There are three sannin. Not just two! I am the third!" the old man said. He had clearly lost it.

"Yeah, okay. Keep telling yourself that." Sasuke said in a rude and highly sarcastic voice. Seriously. The sannin were supposed to be incredibly powerful. But this guy? Sasuke chuckled to himself as he thought how easily he could defeat this old man.

"Fine believe what you want you little punk, but answer me this. What happened that caused both you and miss Haruno to faint?" the old man asked Sasuke. Sasuke didn't even hear the question. All he heard was that both of them (Sasuke and Sakura) had fainted. Both. He wasn't weak. And with that Sasuke launched himself out of bed, out of the room, and to the front desk of the hospital.

"Hello, where could I-" Sasuke began but was cut off when he heard someone calling his name. It was that voice that he longed for. He turned to see Sakura running down the hallway to see him.

"Uh, sir? Where could you…what?" the lady at the desk asked. Sasuke heard nothing at all but Sakura's voice and he replied with just a whisper.

"Sakura" she came to him. The two lovers. They hugged at first. Then Sasuke whispered her name again "Sakura" and he kissed her. "Sakura?" he asked in a passionate voice.

"Yeah" she barely formed the words, as she couldn't believe the luck she had. Finally she had her wish come true.

"Would you dine with me tonight?" he asked her. Everything in the village had seemed bad. Orochimaru's attack, and even thought the village was all hustle and bustle. There was always time for love.


	5. Chapter 5

"N-Naruto" Hinata said. Even though they were a couple, she could net get over her stutter that she'd get when around him.

"Yeah?" he asked dreamily as he stared into the most beautiful, yet fragile eyes he had ever seen. And the stutter. He loved it when she'd make just a small stutter. To her, it was embarrassing, but to him, it was just another thing that made her so beautiful and unique.

"Thanks, y-you know, for taking me out…it's so beautiful here." She said. For Naruto had taken Hinata to the best restaurant he could afford. Hinata had insisted against it, but Naruto pleaded. She just couldn't turn down his cute sky blue eyes. For every time she looked upon them, she saw a handsome young man looking back with the sparkle of youth still there. And every time she thought of that, she fell deeper, and deeper in love.

"Hinata, the beauty that surrounds us can't hold a candle to the beautiful young woman I have the pleasure to dine with tonight" he said, in the most flattering voice he could muster. YES!!! That was perfect. Just as he remembered Sasuke telling Sakura when he saw them eating together a couple of nights ago. Though it was unoriginal, Naruto could think of nothing else to say that could state Hinata's elegance and beauty. For she wore a kimono of a soft blue, that pictured cherry blossoms floating gently to the ground to gather in what looked like ponds of pink. She wore no makeup because Naruto said it would blemish her perfect face.

"You are looking good yourself Naruto" she said looking at him. Naruto was wearing a semi-fancy suit of and pinstripes of white. Under his jacket was a bright blue shirt that matched both his and Hinata's eyes. He had long since taken it off (the jacket) because of heat, and was completely oblivious to the occasional glance from the girl at the table next to his. Though he didn't notice, Hinata sure did, and every time she looked Hinata would send a glare that chilled the girl to the bone.

"Uh, excuse me. Are you ready to place your orders?" the waiter asked.

"Hmmmm…" Hinata stared at the menu " I'll have an herbal tea, and a large Caesar salad" she said as she handed her menu over to the waiter.

"Uhhhh… yeah, I'll have the same thing" Naruto said, and the waiter relieved him of his menu.

"Okay, so I have two herbal teas, and two Caesar salads, large. Is that all?" he asked the two.

"Yep" both said at the same time. Hinata giggled, and blushed as the waiter walked away.

"Huh?!? What?!?" Naruto asked looking all around himself to see what was so funny. "Is there something on my face?" ha asked Hinata. She simply replied with a shake oh her face as she continued to giggle.

"Th-there's toilet paper stuck to our waiter's shoe." She said as she tried to gain control of herself.

When Naruto saw the waiter coming back with the drinks he soon revealed the embarrassing bit of info. The man blushed and walked away quite speedily without speaking a word.

When they got their food, it was a completely different waiter. This time, in fact, it was a waitress.

"Ummm…where'd our waiter from before go?" Naruto asked inquisitively.

"Oh, him? We just switched tables," she said indicating him walking to a different table. He noticed and blushed deeply before returning to the kitchen.

They ate their meal, and exchanged small talk over their teammates, and their sensei. Both were so into their debate as to whether Kakashi, or Kurenai was better, that they didn't realize they were done eating, until the waitress handed Naruto the bill.

Naruto paid, but was sad to see his frog wallet lose so much weight.

As the two got closer to the Hyuuga compound, Naruto's pace begun to slow until he was merely ten feet away from the entrance where he stopped.

"Naruto?" Hinata almost yawned. "Why have you stopped," she asked.

"Your father knows not of us, and how we feel. Yet he knows me, and despises me," he said. This was true. Haishi Hyuuga hated Naruto's guts.

"Naruto…he will understand" she said.

"No, I don't think he -" he said, but stopped dead in mid-sentence as the sliding door to the compound opened and out came Hinata's dad.

"Hinata" he began "Who said I wouldn't understand?" he said. With that ha looked to Naruto, and his gaze darkened. "No!" that was all he said.

"Father!" Hinata cried.

"No!" he repeated even louder "Never!" he then grabbed Hinata and half escorted, and half dragged her home.

Hinata cried all night. Why had this happened.


	6. Chapter 6

"Hey, Naruto! What's up?" Kiba asked as he and Shikamaru approached. "Whoa, dude. You look so…so…"

"Depressed, uninterested, sad. Take your pick" Shikamaru said as he had already possible reasons of why Naruto was the way he was (currently).

"I don't feel like talking" the blonde youth responded, sounding quite dejected. With that he got up to leave, and trudged along at a speed that seemed slower than anyone could possibly move.

"Wow! He's totally different than usually! I mean he's usually all: TRAIN! TRAIN! TRAIN! And now he's like: meh…" Kiba said in pure astonishment as he walked Naruto walk away. "I bet you its girl problems," he then said.

"Yeah, they're just way too troublesome. That's why I don't mess with them" Shikamaru replied in a slightly disinterested tone. Kiba suddenly sniggered. "What? What's funny about that" Shikamaru asked in an annoyed voice.

"Oh, I don't mess with girls" Kiba imitated in a high pitch girly voice. " Yeah, and I hate Akamaru" with that Akamaru whined. "Oh, I was being sarcastic, you" Kiba muttered to the little puppy. "What I mean is…what about that one girl from Suna? Huh? I think her name was…what was it…oh, yeah, Temari…or something like that," Kiba said in a voice that sounded as if it were taunting a small child with candy.

"F*** you" Shikamaru replied walking off, while also flipping Kiba off at the same time. This of course was to distract Kiba from the fact that his face was a deep red. Though Shikamaru was a genius, he could never find a simple way to deal with embarrassment.

"Oh, fine then, walk off on me too" Kiba complained as he began to walk away staring lazily around…

On the other side of the village, something quite like what had just happened was taking place, but instead, it was to kunoichi.

"Oh my god! Hinata! What's wrong?!?" Sakura partly yelled as she ram to the timid blue-ish haired girl.

"Huh? Oh…it's you…h-hello s-Sakura…how's it going?" Hinata asked. She had been recently crying, and her eyes showed it.

"Good, but that's not important. What's important is that you were just crying. What's up with that?" the pink haired girl asked, as her eyes filled with sadness to see a fellow kunoichi so sad.

"Uh-uh…um…you see…Naruto and I-" she began.

"Wait! You and Naruto are a-a-a-a couple?" Sakura asked barely able to believe it. First she gets her dream man, and then so does Hinata. "But wait… shouldn't you be all like… like… happy, and excited?" she asked, "I mean you do love him…don't you? Sakura asked.

"Well, y-yeah, but f-father… he doesn't approve of Naruto. Not one bit…you see…father hates" Hinata began, but yet again was cut off by Sakura.

"Wait. Let me get this straight. You LOVE Naruto. You GET Naruto. Your dad HATES Naruto. So, who cares? You don't need parent approval anyway. You can love whom you want to love," she said coming up with, as she thought as perfect "logic".

"O-o-okay… thank you Sakura… thank you so much" Hinata said " I umm, I have to go" Hinata said as ideas of what must be done, began to form in her head.

"Uh, okay. Bye Hinata!" Sakura said as she walked down a semi-crowded street, and began to talk to herself "hmmm, I wonder where Sasuke went…"

While this happened, Naruto had met up with Sasuke.

"Yeah, what I'm saying is that you shouldn't let Hinata's dad pull your and Hinata's relationship apart" Sasuke said.

"I know, I know, I know. But, if I tell him that, Hinata's dad will completely hate me…even more than before," Naruto said in a whiny voice. Naruto had hoped he could get advice from Sasuke as his and Sakura's relationship had bloomed instantly. Then again, Sasuke's parents were dead, and Sakura's were honored that their Sakura had gotten the only remaining Uchiha.

"Oh, okay then, your choice. Not mine. "Sasuke said as he looked around the crowd nervously.

"What's up with you?" Naruto asked as he stared at the strange boy searching for something or someone in the crowd.

"TAG! Your it" Sakura yelled as she came out of nowhere and tagged Sasuke. And with that Sasuke was after Sakura in a flash.

"Oh, okay then…bye Sasuke…" and Naruto slowly walked home, and went to sleep. He dreamt of the walk home with Hinata the previous night. But instead they just kept on walking. They kept on going, and going. Soon Naruto was tired, but Hinata, Hinata was speeding up. Naruto tried to run, but could not keep pace, and soon had lost this ghost of his love…maybe, this meant they weren't to be. The boy cried, in life and in dream. Suddenly, he was awakening by a loud knocking from his front door. "Come in, the door's open" Naruto said with a yawn.

"Naruto!" Hinata half yelled as tears streamed down her cheek,

"H-Hinata, what's wrong?!?" Naruto asked wondering if her father had done something to make her cry.

"We can be together," she said smiling a more tears spilled forth from her eyes.

"W-what?" Naruto said as he flung to Hinata, to embrace her in a warm, loving, hug. "How?" he asked after kissing her.

"I-I told him how I felt for you, how I love you. I said that he had no reason to do what he did, and that he couldn't run my life" Hinata began " and I yelled at him the whole time. I yelled…. and I cried…at first I thought he'd be furious…but in the end he said that if I loved you enough to actually come and tell him in such a way…we should be together" she finished her story, and cried more than ever…

epilogue: everyone lives happily together...blah, blah, blah....yeah


End file.
